Nick Robinson interviews Sir Gus O’Donnell and Sir John Parker

BBC Political Editor, Nick Robinson conducted the interview and chaired the Q&A session which followed.

Both Sir Gus and Sir John responded candidly to questions which ranged from what has worked well and not so well in terms of government and business working together in what has proved to be a most extraordinary past 12 months, how well the sectors work together when there isn’t a crisis and how might a public sector squeeze on spending affect the relationship, to ways of taking the risk out of innovation, how to prepare during a period of transition prior to the next election, what business and government could each do better to improve the effectiveness of dialogue, and what actions will need to be taken over the next 12 months to smooth out the fall in GDP.

The occasion was also used to launch WIG’s research publication ‘Closing the Gap’ which explores which explores for the first time the changing nature of communication between business and government over the past 25 years and provides recommendations for improvement.

Download research: ‘Closing the Gap’ (0.99 Mb)

Link to the press release: ‘Better communication between business and government never more vital. New research finds good progress but scope for improvement.’